r/pics • u/JohnQPublic76 • 8h ago
[OC] The National Guard in D.C. are now armed (photo taken at Union Station)
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u/lucabrasi999 7h ago
Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin'
Four dead in Ohio
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u/CSGOW1ld 7h ago
Just a reminder public sentiment was with the national guardsmen at this time
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u/MrAflac9916 4h ago
The American people are incredibly stupid at best, and evil at worst.
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u/MSurpGaming 7h ago
Nixon won in an absolute landslide after that btw.
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u/No-comment-at-all 5h ago
Well, the regime was caught cheating, and we don’t know what he wasn’t caught doing.
Not to take agency away from the people who voted for him.
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u/FickleMeringue4119 7h ago
Im at Kent State University rn. Staff are very clearly terrified of any student protests and have been strongly discouraging it and bent over to most of the Trump restrictions passed in SB1. Very sad.
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u/ryan1064 7h ago
It’s darker now
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u/J0E_Blow 7h ago
I see a red door and I want it painted black?
Don’t fear the reaper?
I’d love to change the world but instead I’ll leave it up to you?
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u/Dr_Hayden 7h ago
TIL its not "Forget it, ohio"
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u/stonedsquatch 6h ago
The whole song is referring to the incident when the national guard killed four students at Kent state university in Ohio.
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u/JazzBassMan 7h ago
Christ. I didn’t carry my weapon in condition Amber unless I was outside the wire. Are we implying the national mall is outside the wire? Nonsense.
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u/jdragun2 7h ago
Those damn democrats will eat your dogs and babies!!! Of course its outside the wire, its fucking Mad Maxx out here.
/s [in case I have to these days]
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u/Longshot_45 7h ago
What's condition Amber? Mag in but none in the chamber? Don't the police normally carry with their weapon loaded?
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u/J0E_Blow 7h ago
In the military context, an Amber Condition for a firearm means the magazine is loaded and in the weapon, but the chamber is empty, the bolt is forward, and the weapon is on safe or de-cocked
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u/clduab11 6h ago
This is set by department policy, not military protocol. Some departments boilerplate over military protocol to set weapon conditions, but these are almost always reviewed periodically by the commissioner/command staff and passed down COC all the way to roll call.
Typically, in the armed forces, soldiers deployed somewhere other than the theater of combat are mandated to keep their weapons in certain conditions relative to their SOP (usually covered in briefings).
Otherwise, for police forces, a department by department with some guidelines in place by the DOJ (or used to be for departments who got on the Feds’ shit list after Ferguson and other similar acts), which in this Administration I’m sure is practically nonexistent.
It’s a sticky subject; academics in the criminal justice sector usually advocate for less military in policing (especially those who subscribe to the restorative justice model), but IMHO, the military weapons training is something every police officer must clear, even past POST standards. So there’s some give and take.
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u/Half_Breed_Mutt 7h ago
Why would your weapon be Amber outside of the wire and not red unless like an open bolt machine gun?
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u/steelhorizon 7h ago
Came here to say this, glad im not the only one. Amber on base, red outside the wire. Especially for side arms, my M9 was pretty much always amber.
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u/cervicalgrdle 7h ago
What does it mean for it to be amber or red? Ignorant human man here
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u/xSaRgED 6h ago
Amber is a loaded magazine in, but no round chambered, and safety on. Two to three steps from firing, depending on how you define a step (some people skip “aiming”, but I like to include it).
Red means a round is chambered, and likely that the safety is off. One to two steps away from firing.
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u/ConsciousPatroller 7h ago
Non-American, more like. I always love it when American (I assume veterans) start talking in code in these threads, like everyone knows what Amber and Red means. Some sort of common knowledge, perhaps
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u/AngryGermanNoises 6h ago
Green - no magazine in the weapon at all, paperweight
Amber - magazine in weapon but no round in the chamber, must be "racked" to fire
Red - round in the chamber, manual safety engaged if on that model of weapon.
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u/ConsciousPatroller 6h ago
So basically y'all now have troopers with live ammo wandering the streets?
Cool. Sooner than I expected
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u/AngryGermanNoises 6h ago
Yes, just like any other cop. If these are Military Police then they are state law enforcement.
I did this for riots in 2014. It isn't new by any means. I did not care for that experience.
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u/steelhorizon 6h ago
Yeahhh the whole thing is nonsense political theatre, and disgusting, but a service member carrying a weapon isnt really all that crazy.
Maybe its changed in the 12 years ive been out, but realistically military members will be very reluctant to draw a weapon on a civilian. Even in Iraq / Afghanistan when shit was dangerous most soldiers would only draw down if it was life or death. Granted there's always been some psychopaths.
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u/AngryGermanNoises 6h ago
I've done this exact job and IMHO there was way more aggressive shit from the local cops than the guardsmen.
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u/Zanos 5h ago
If a condition green firearm is a paperweight, a condition amber firearm is, at best, a club. It takes way too long to rack a round for the gun to be usable in an immediate self defense situation. Civilians that CC and police usually carry condition red and that is what any self-respecting instructor will tell you to do for self defense purposes.
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u/JazzBassMan 7h ago
2007 procedure for my unit until you were on your patrol route. Your mileage may vary.
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u/Justame13 7h ago
Unit SOPs usually a knee jerk reaction to a fuckup.
My second Iraq trip we weren't in contact a ton (once every week or two) and some dumbass had an ND in an MRAP while on a PSD mission of all things.
So the unit changed the SOP to amber only unless outside a vehicle or a gunner. Which was ignored by those of us outside the wire on the reg and
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u/MeatballMarine 7h ago
What is Amber? We always used Condtion 1-4
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u/JazzBassMan 7h ago
Amber is rounds in magazine, magazine in weapon, no round in chamber. Gather is largely a GWOT term?
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u/Half_Breed_Mutt 7h ago
Amber is condition 3 in the Army. Mag in chamber empty.
Err or is it 2. Its been so long I forget which one is the like pseudo condition for like m2s and revolvers or something like that.
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u/PTRWP 7h ago
Condition 3 is mag in, empty chamber. It is also often referred to as “Israeli carry” due to the prevalence of its use in the IDF and Israeli civilian population.
Pretty close to “revolvers or something like that” as condition 2 requires a hammer. Condition 2 is the same as condition 1 (round in the chamber, safety on) except the hammer is down. If the firearm does not have a hammer, it can never be in condition 2.
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u/MeatballMarine 7h ago
Sounds like condition 3 then. Unless that pistol has a hammer I don’t totally remember but it’s been a bit.
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u/greenline_chi 7h ago
What could go wrong with part time military guys carrying guns in cities?!
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u/aedinius 7h ago
I can't speak for other branches, but Air Force always carries handguns chambered and safety off, regardless of location.
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u/milosh_the_spicy 7h ago
It’s a blatant authoritarian power grab and the people should not tolerate it.
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u/AccountHuman7391 7h ago edited 7h ago
Interesting to remember that the new DC DA just said she wouldn’t prosecute people openly carrying rifles in DC.
Correction: US Attorney, not DA.
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u/Bailywolf 7h ago
They want somebody to take a shot at the guard and then it's full takeover.
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u/AccountHuman7391 7h ago
Or better yet, poorly trained Guardsmen take a shot at someone they view as a threat. Then the protests, then martial law, then the elections get suspended.
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u/frydfrog 7h ago
Not DA. U.S. Attorney. A DA is elected by the people it serves. The U.S. Attorney is a federal presidential appointment. Nobody in DC voted for Pirro.
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u/ITGuy107 7h ago
National Guard aren't police. There is no war going on in DC...
Why are they being called up to patrol the streets?
There is no insurrection happening like on January 6th.
Why hasn't their commands refused the unlawful command?
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u/wget_thread 7h ago
Because their command is receiving orders from pro-MAGA governors.
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u/Background-Noise-918 6h ago
The Guard is under the president's command once they are sent to DC ...
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u/Background-Noise-918 6h ago
To answer your other claim "Today’s D.C. National Guard remains strong with more than 2,400 Soldiers and Airmen available to execute its missions. D.C. National Guard Soldiers and Airmen resides within the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, and are proud to be from the communities in which we protect and serve. "
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u/Pvm_Blaser 7h ago
Because the people who do have the ability to command them are all conservatives. Refusing DJT as a conservative right now is the equivalent to career suicide.
Rock and a hard place for those conservatives that haven’t drank the cool aid. The hard place being that once conservatives are out of power many will go to jail just like what happened the first term.
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u/ITGuy107 7h ago
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when he kicks the bucket and/or the republicans are out.
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u/vodfather 6h ago
I wish I could be an optimist here. I bet we roll over and pretend none of this ever happened, everyone escapes accountability (except a few sacrificial lambs), and we never finish excising the cancer. This is how our current government and country will end - the cancer will re-metastasize and kill the host. Just like the Civil War.
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u/Belzebutt 5h ago
They aren’t planning to go out, the next step is to interfere with free and fair elections, to make sure they always “win” from now on. Maybe they’ll let Democrats be a vestigial opposition party like Putin allows in Russia.
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u/TwoCatsOneBox 6h ago
How do you know that the soldiers of the national guard aren’t Trump supporters? Maybe they like what they’re doing?
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u/Skittlejs33 7h ago
People don't understand that a lot of these soldiers are like 19-23 and have roleplayed military around 30 days a year. It's so easy for a group of kids with weapons, power, and no understanding of the situation to go a little too far. That'll be in our own neighborhoods against our own people...
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u/definitelynotpat6969 6h ago
One of my close friends of several decades is an officer in the NG.
Ngl, a half drunk red neck with an AR15 is vastly more competent than at least 40% of the Natty's from what ive heard.
Im talking loading magazines backwards type shit. So if anyone sees them as a "real threat" other than a bunch of kids trying to get federal benefits, they're sorely mistaken.
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u/Carnephex 8h ago
Looks like a milspec Sig P320. The problem will solve itself with some time and terrible luck. 👌
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u/jgilbs 7h ago edited 7h ago
Those things go off for like no reason
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u/DeePsiMon 7h ago
"When you're deployed for no reason, you need pistol that will fire for no reason. Hi there, I'm Troy McClure..."
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u/Fair_Acanthisitta_75 7h ago
You might remember from educational films like “I’ve just blown dick off”, and “This gun goes boom when it wants to.”
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u/Blochamolesauce 6h ago
They better make sure their poison pen caps are on tight too. They also come off for like… no reason 😉
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u/Cheshire_Jester 7h ago
Eh, these things have an astounding and unacceptable failure rate. For the individual, it’s a catastrophe. But it’s a rounding error for the organization.
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u/Poverty_4_Sale 7h ago
M17 and M18 both have a manual safety versus the civilian P320. I know last month that an airman was killed by what was originally thought to be an accidental discharge. However, another airman was later arrested for a false statement, obstruction, and involuntary manslaughter.
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u/cpufreak101 8h ago
Was about to say this lol
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u/PM_ME_MH370 7h ago
Are these the ones that are having that unintentional discharge scandal slowly unfold over the last year and a half?
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u/cpufreak101 7h ago
Yes, pretty infamous in the gun community now for uncommanded discharges and banned in an increasingly large amount of training centers and competitions as a result.
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u/tkitkitchen 7h ago
If i remember correctly didn't one discharge in its holster like last month and kill an airman?
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u/cpufreak101 7h ago
Yes, though I've heard some recent evidence has resulted in an arrest in that case
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u/Visual-Yak3971 7h ago
Turned out a fellow airman was charged in that case. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/08/08/politics/airman-arrested-fatal-firearm-discharge
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u/blackadder1620 7h ago edited 7h ago
yes, and the worst thing is the company doesn't really have a solution afaik. which is just bonkers. firearms can be complex, but this isn't the tip of the spear tech wise. it's really embarrassing.
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u/flethan2 7h ago
No need for a solution if you refuse to admit there is a problem
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u/Marijuana_Miler 7h ago
The companies legal team will never let them admit there is a problem unless that admission gets them out of an even larger problem.
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u/abrakalemon 7h ago
They don't have a solution because the solution would most likely mean recalling millions of guns and they would not be able to financially survive that. Opening their mouths and admitting fault would also open them up to soooo many more lawsuits. So the solution to this situation for them kind of has to be "ignore it and hope it goes away" if they want to survive as a company. But their goose is already cooked because reputation means so much for firearms manufacturers.
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u/Carnephex 7h ago
Governor Ayotte of NH passed a law that absolves Sig of essentially all lawsuits and claims against the company.
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u/Cameronbic 7h ago
People often forget the first country the Nazi's invaded was their own.
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u/CheckMateFluff 7h ago
This is 100% against the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. They declared a phony emergency to try and bypass the law, but make no mistake, this is super illegal, and 100% against the American people's freedom.
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u/PapasGotABrandNewNag 6h ago
This administration has done a ton of illegal and unconstitutional shit in the 7 months it’s been since it changed hands.
The president is a 34 time convicted felon.
It seems to not matter.
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u/Lusia_Havanti 7h ago
This is why there is supposed to be a separation of powers, but we currently have a cult controlling all 3 branches so the law is whatever they want it to be.
We need to disband both political parties and ban them from reforming, can't have team sport politics with no teams I know it's a pipe dream but a guy can hope.
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u/Xyrus2000 6h ago
And the American people are responding by turning DC into a virtual ghost town. Businesses are pretty pissed off that one of the big weekends of the year (Labour Day) is going to be a bust because of this.
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u/bodhipooh 5h ago
The act specifically excludes the National Guards (both Army and Air) so not really. It’s still wild and dystopian, but better to be informed than to spout misinformation.
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u/quietflowsthedodder 7h ago
Step by step, inch by inch, the Chump is getting us normalized with his military coup. He will shut resistance down in every American city and we apparently are only interested in when the next Taylor Swift album is going to be available. Fuck us!
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u/SimplerTimesAhead 6h ago
Resistance isn’t being shut down though, it’s increasing.
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u/valcar2323 7h ago
You bring up a good question when is the next Taylor Swift album coming?
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u/burke830 7h ago
Posse Comitatus Act?
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u/burnmenowz 7h ago
See that's the trick, they're protecting law enforcement, not actually enforcing the law.
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u/JohnQPublic76 7h ago
They’re not even protecting law enforcement. They’re standing around in the summer heat and D.C. humidity on the National Mall and at Union Station mostly. They’re bored out of their damn minds.
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u/burnmenowz 7h ago
Oh of course they're wasting tax dollars doing nothing, but from a legal standpoint "they're protecting law enforcement"
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u/JohnQPublic76 7h ago
Oh, I’ve (politely) told many active duty military and National Guard to cut the shit when they give me their spiel on “helping law enforcement.” They’re a bunch of glorified garden gnomes with guns.
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u/bohawkn 7h ago
Thanks again to all of the assholes who voted for this bullshit.
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u/Unusual-Ear5013 4h ago
Dear America - this is fucked beyond all measure and I’m starting to get genuinely scared.
Love,
An Australian who cares.
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u/thetan_free 1h ago
I'm an Australian old enough to remember that other experiment with entertainer-turned-Republican President: Ronald Reagan.
Not at all my favourite politician but Jesus Christ he would be spinning in his grave to see armed soldiers patrolling DC while plain-clothes, masked snatch-squads operate unmarked vans with impunity across the country.
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u/theDarkDescent 7h ago
The exact shit that Republicans spent decades saying that democrats were going to do.
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u/llamabirds 2h ago
"There’s a reason you separate the military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people" - Commander Adama.
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u/Gjappy 7h ago
Why are they there again? To stop gun violence?
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u/ohheyitsgeoffrey 7h ago
Trump is trying to incite violent counterprotests to use as a pretext for declaring martial law.
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u/Gjappy 6h ago
Then the Americans should ignore that and just live on like nothing is happening. Which will give these soldiers a really boring time and cause no incentive for anything.
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u/Ok-disaster2022 7h ago
To weed out the troops that will refuse immoral orders and to identify the ones that are fully on the Trump Train
Biden should have spent the last few years secretly weeding out the US military of Trumpists.
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u/nowlan_shane 7h ago
Laying the groundwork to attempt to stay in power after the 4-year term is over.
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u/kryotheory 7h ago
You're telling me some nasty girl acting as a glorified security guard conus can get a sidearm but I couldn't get one when I was hunting Taliban in fucking caves?! The fuck.
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u/ChuckNorrisUSAF 4h ago
Makes you wonder how many of them don’t really want to be there and how many of them are die hard MAGA supporters who are itching to cause some chaos if their Commander in Chief asked them to break the law.
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u/doublegg83 3h ago
These guys seem eager to fight, especially their own people.
Why not just send them overseas. There are many war zones.
Go ahead tough guys.
This is so sad
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u/ObliviouslyDrake67 8h ago
Armed with shitty service sigs, and most likely still haven't been paid so good luck getting ammo.
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u/NegotiationWilling45 6h ago
He has deployed armed troops to control the civilian population and the country that claims freedom as a core virtue is doing ………fuck all?
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u/Retro-scores 7h ago
Hey everyone!! Remember when it was Nancy Pelosi’s fault for not calling in the national guard to stop the insurrection the rapist Donald trump started? Do you guys remember that? The president didn’t have the power to do that?
Weird…
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u/Pourkinator 7h ago
Our military has no business being used against American citizens. These are orders they’re obligated to disobey, as they are unconstitutional. Our president is a fucking traitor
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u/Admirable_Nothing 7h ago
The NG at Kent State was also armed and the arms were loaded with live ammunition. Look up what happened.
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u/jdragun2 7h ago
I want to know how THEY feel about it, honestly. I'm always more interested in their individual takes. We all know its horrific and terrifying, but how do they feel about it?
What I feel should be done in response I cannot type here as the ban would last for ever.
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u/JohnQPublic76 7h ago
I talked to two of them about it. It was very cordial, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the purpose.
One said with a Southern drawl that he didn’t ask for this, the other told me he’d only ever use it to defend himself—and even then the person would have to be almost on top of him.
I said “So if someone across the street were committing a crime with a gun, what would you do?”
He said “Assuming he’s not pointing the gun at me? I’d stand here and watch.”
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u/SubiWhale 7h ago
I can’t believe they’re still using the p320 lol